


Carry Me Home

by juggieheadcoopers



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, One Shot, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 15:56:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10722507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juggieheadcoopers/pseuds/juggieheadcoopers
Summary: Betty gets injured on a hike and Jughead carries her home





	Carry Me Home

“Juggie, I can walk on my own you don’t have to - ow!” 

Betty clutched her leg in pain, leaning into Jughead as they clumsily made their way past dozens of sycamore trees and fallen branches.

“Easy now,” Jughead told her, gently wrapping his arm around her waist as he guided her to a nearby stump and slowly lowered her onto it. “Even Cheryl Strayed knew when she needed to take a break and let herself heal.” 

“But if we stop now we’ll never make it back before dark,” Betty pointed out, shrugging her backpack off her shoulders and letting it slide to the wet ground. 

“You have a point,” Jughead admitted, swinging his own pack around his body and rummaging through it to find the ankle brace he kept in his emergency first-aide kit. “Alone in a forest at night - we all know how well that worked out for those film students in the Blair Witch Project.” 

“Great, so it’s settled,” Betty declared, standing from the stump on her good foot and pointing in the direction of the worn path in front of them. “You let me lead us back down the trail and we get back home before we become witch food.” 

“Bets, you’re hurt,” Jughead reminded her, gently pushing her back onto the stump and squatting down to her level. “Your hand’s all scraped up and your ankle is swollen - I mean come on, golf balls aren’t even that round!” 

“Then what do you suggest, Jughead, because right now our options are looking pretty limited,” Betty sighed, lifting her foot and removing her boot to let Jughead wrap the brace around her injured ankle.

“Hop on,” Jughead suggested, gesturing to his backpack-less back and bending over so that she could easily climb on. 

“You’re kidding, right?” Betty scoffed, slipping her shoe into her bag and standing up to face Jughead. 

“Does this look like the face of someone who kids?” Jughead raised a challenging eyebrow at her and shoved his bag in her direction. “Plus, that movie gave me nightmares for months, I don’t mess around with creepy dark forests and menacing witches.” 

“Juggie, it’s like three more miles to the end of the trail, are you sure you can even hold me that long?” 

“I’m insulted by your lack of faith in my buff masculine strength, Betty Cooper,” Jughead told her, a look of mock-offense washing over his expression as he held out his hand to help her hobble over to him. 

“Hey, I’m just looking out for you,” Betty informed him. “I don’t want you to pass out before we get back - I mean, that wouldn’t do either of us any good now would it?” 

“Yeah, well, I’m just looking out for you so would you please just let me give you a piggyback ride before I’m forced to use my stern voice?” 

“Your stern voice?” Betty smirked, her face lighting up as she let her mind drift to thoughts of what that might sound like. “Wait, now I kind of want to hear it do you think you could-”

“Betty!” Jughead protested, gesturing impatiently for her to make up her mind and hop onto his back. 

“Sorry, okay,” Betty muttered, scooping Jughead’s bag into her hands and positioning herself to climb onto his back. “Thanks, Juggie.” 

“We carry each other through everything, Bets, no matter what,” Jughead reminded her, glancing back to smile in her direction as he took a few steps down the trail. “It’s you and me against the world, remember?” 

“Always,” Betty whispered into his hair, smiling to herself as Jughead took off down the trail, nearly tripping over a fallen branch as they hiked their way back home. “You do know where we’re going right?”

“In a philosophical sense, yes, in a literal sense - well I guess we’ll find out!”

**Author's Note:**

> References
> 
> *Cheryl Strayed - Author of the memoir, Wild, which describes her 1,100 mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail 
> 
> *Blair Witch Project - 1999 movie that follows 3 film students who hike in the Black Hills forest in Burkitsville, Maryland to film a documentary about the Blair Witch


End file.
